Northwest Basket Weavers Guild » Willow Basketmaker

January 2012 newsletter

Jan 042012

Happy New Year!

Four views of a basket by Katherine Lewis

We hope your new year is off to a good start. 2011 was a busy year for us. As many of you know, Katherine made a six week trip to Europe to visit basketry festivals, basketmakers, museums, and study willow basketry to improve her skills and knowledge of the craft. See below for information about her upcoming presentation in Seattle on the trip. After getting back, Katherine made several new pieces for Art’s Alive (November 4-6) in La Conner where she was invited to participate in the ‘Emerging Artists’ exhibit. Then we were fortunate to get a mention in a Rita Konig column in the Wall Street Journal about log baskets and fireplaces. Next thing Katherine knew she had a waiting list of orders. Although it is nice to be busy, Katherine hopes to spend time this spring concentrating on work inspired by her trip.

Log baskets with different weaves: French randing, slewing, cat, English randing

Upcoming Events

Baskets in Europe, 2011: Katherine Lewis presentation to the Northwest Basket Weavers’ Guild, January 11, 2012, 6:30PM, Shoreline Unitarian Church, 14724 1st Avenue NE Shoreline, WA. Katherine will be presenting a program about the three basketry festivals she attended in Europe in 2011. She will show photos and discuss the three festivals in Vallabregues, France; Nowy Tomysl, Poland; and Lichtenfels, Germany. Each festival was unique in both basketmakers and staging of the event. She will also bring baskets that she purchased from some other willow basketmakers. Everyone is welcome to attend. Katherine’s program will begin at 7:30, but baskets and other trip souvenirs will be available for viewing at 6:30.

Fête de la Vannerie à Vallabrègues

Artist Trust Benefit Art Auction: Fisher Pavilion at Seattle Center, February 25, 2012. Annual event to benefit Artist Trust which supports Washington artists of all disciplines through grants and career training programs. Katherine received a $1500 grant from Artist Trust to help fund her study with basketmaker David Drew in September, 2011. Katherine is donating one of her baskets for the auction.

willow rope coil basket by Katherine Lewis

"whirlpool" by Katherine Lewis

MoNA Style 2012: Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, WA, March 17, 2012. This annual show features wearable art and home furnishings from Northwest artisans. Part of each sale helps support the museum. Katherine will be there with willow baskets along with 40 other vendors of handmade creations.

Willow Basketmaking Classes with Katherine Lewis

March 14 -15, 2012: Northwest Basketweavers Guild Spring Retreat: Katherine will be teaching one 10 hour class “Double border tray” at this coming year’s retreat. See the Guild’s website for full details. Unfortunately, the Guild is only offering one class by Katherine this year. Want more willow classes at retreat? Make it known to the retreat committee.

June 1-3, 2012: Willow Weekend in Entiat, Washington: This weekend event in eastern Washington organized by Claudia Mullek will feature workshops by Judy Zugish, Jo Campbell-Amsler, and Katherine Lewis. Katherine will be teaching a two day class in which people can weave either a round gathering basket or an oval garden basket. Friday evening will feature presentations by the three artists about their work. You can find details and a registration form here in this pdf on our website.

Willow Gathering 2012 in Decorah, Iowa, June 21-26, 2012: Katherine has been invited to teach in Iowa at this workshop organized by Jo Campbell-Amsler and Lee Zieke Lee. She will be teaching three two-day classes: rope coil, scallomed oval baskets, and Irish potato basket. For those of you who live in the Midwest this will be a great opportunity to take one or more of Katherine’s classes. Also teaching at the event will be Sandy Whalen and Donna Kallner. The organizers expect the classes to fill well in advance. Information and registrations are available through Jo Campbell-Amsler. See the brochure.

Katherine is expecting to post some dates for classes at Dunbar Gardens for late summer. We’ll be sending another email out later in the spring with updates.

Willow cuttings

Lincon's Sparrow

It’s the time of year to order willow cuttings. We have a nice selection of varieties for planting listed on our website. Depending on your location, March through mid May is a good time to plant. There are planting tips on the website. If you need advice or have questions, send Steve an email.

Facebook: Dunbar Gardens has a Facebook page. We post photos of Katherine’s latest baskets, commissions, and photos of the farm as well as other links of interest for willow basketry.

For more information about classes, baskets, willow growing, or our farmstand please visit our website. Thanks!

Katherine & Steve

Exploring Baskets

exhibits 1 Response »

Dec 062010

Exploring Baskets is a show of work by members of the Northwest Basket Weavers Guild exhibited in Anacortes, WA from December 3, 2010 to January 29, 2011. There are over 60 pieces by 22 guild members and the show’s two jurors Lanny Bergner and Danielle Bodine. Several of the artists are nationally known for their work in contemporary basketry.

'Piece of cake' by Katherine Lewis

Katherine was excited when an Anacortes gallery asked her about a possible show with the NWBW Guild. She never thought it would be a “piece of cake”, but it’s not easy to imagine all the hours of work that will be needed to organize a group exhibit. There is getting the info out to the members, collecting applications, formatting the images and descriptions for the jury, lining up the jurors, notifying all the applicants of the decisions, printing postcards, press releases, printing the identification labels for the work, inventory sheets for the gallery, artist name tags, artist statements, making cards to promote the organization, receiving work, transporting it all to the gallery, wrangling pedestals and display cases, finally arranging the art in the gallery, staffing the opening weekend, organizing basket day classes, tracking the event budget, not to mention staffing the gallery on Saturdays because the gallery has cut back on hours due to budget cuts.

But the rewards came when the show was up, and the exhibit opened on Friday. Guild members showed up to view their own work and that of weavers they know and admire. The Anacortes First Friday Art Walk always brings out a crowd, and locals were visibly impressed with the quality and diversity of the art and craft.

Thanks go to quite a few people for volunteering their efforts to the exhibit. Katherine Lewis and Kay Ogren were the primary organizers, but they had great help from Mary Irvine, Dorothy McGuinness, Alex Keggan, Heidi Brewer-Peters, Carolyn Swain, Dianne Corso, Lanny Bergner, Claudia Mullek, Sharle Osborne and Jan Smith. The artists all paid a small application fee to enter the show, but the NWBW Guild is still contributing funds to put on the event and receives no part of the gallery commissions on sales. Katherine has certainly received quite a few appreciative comments since the opening, and she wants everyone in the Guild to share in the success.

'Harvesting the Skagit' and 'Panier a Jour'

Artists included in the show are Sally Anaya, Mary Auld, Lanny Bergner,Danielle Bodine,Heidi Brewer-Peters, David Chambers, Deb Curtis, Jill Green, Mary Irvine, Marcy Johnson, Sharon Kita, Vicki Lash, Katherine Lewis, Dorothy McGuinness, Marilyn Moore, Claudia Mullek, Sharle Osborne, Carolyn Reznikoff, Bill Roeder, Polly Sutton, Elaine Twogood, Melinda West, Sheila Wray and Judy Zugish. Katherine has four baskets in the juried exhibit. Her work is certainly the most functional form represented in this show. (Three of her baskets are in the above photos. Don’t worry, you can see other people’s work in the slideshow below!)

Another reward of all the work was seeing new people interested in the craft give it a try. The opening weekend also included a ‘Holiday Basket Day’ on Saturday. Members of the guild taught some hands on basketry with activities available for children and adults. Teachers included Sheila Wray, Elaine Twogood, Kay Harradine, Mary Auld and Karen Samdahl. It was especially fun to watch a couple of the children weave so well that they finished very nice baskets before their adult companions did.

Katherine was happy to demonstrate her willow basketry work for gallery visitors. People are always amazed at her ability to weave slender willow withies with a few hand tools into a beautiful, functional basket.

With the show up for nearly two months, there is plenty of opportunity to see this outstanding display. The gallery hours are Tuesday-Friday: 12:30-5:00, Saturday: 1:00-4:00. All the work is for sale, and there are additional baskets for sale by the same artists in a non-juried area. I uploaded photos from the opening weekend to our Flickr.com account. There are plenty of views of most of the baskets in the exhibit. Enjoy a slideshow:

[vodpod id=Video.5064736&w=425&h=350&fv=offsite%3Dtrue%26amp%3Blang%3Den-us%26amp%3Bflickr_notracking%3Dtrue%26amp%3Bflickr_target%3D_self%26amp%3Bnsid%3D21288426%40N05%26amp%3BtextV%3D66488%26amp%3Bispro%3D1%26amp%3B%26amp%3Bset_id%3D72157625531121878%26amp%3Bpage_show_back_url%3D%2Fphotos%2Fdunbargardens%2Fsets%2F72157625531121878%2F%26amp%3Bpage_show_url%3D%2Fphotos%2Fdunbargardens%2Fsets%2F72157625531121878%2Fshow%2F%26amp%3BminH%3D100%26amp%3BminW%3D100]

November 2010 newsletter

Dunbar Gardens No Responses »

Nov 022010

News from Dunbar Gardens November 2010

Upcoming Events

Art’s Alive! 2010 at Maple Hall in La Conner, WA, November 5-7. Annual celebration of local arts in the nearby town of La Conner. Katherine will have a basket in the open show.

Adornment, a wearable art show at Gallery Cygnus, November 12-December 24, 109 Commercial Street, La Conner. Gem of a gallery in La Conner. Katherine will have one of her willow purses in this show.

Pleasant Ridge Gallery at Rexville: November 19-22, at the Rexville Grange, 19299 Rexville Grange Road (1 block from the Rexville Grocery) Annual arts & crafts show featuring ceramics, glass, painting, photography, woodwork, and basketry. Opening night, Friday, Nov. 19 will have a party with Celtic music by Campbell Road.

Exploring Baskets: A juried show and sale of work by members of the Northwest Basket Weavers Guild: December 3, 2010 – January 29, 2011, Anacortes, WA. Katherine is involved in organizing this show and expects an outstanding and very diverse exhibit. Members’ work was juried by artists Lanny Bergner and Danielle Bodine.

Katherine has four baskets chosen for the exhibit. The opening will be Friday, Dec. 3 from 6 – 9pm as part of the First Friday Art Walk in Anacortes. On Saturday, December 4 there will be a “holiday themed” Basket Day with classes and demonstrations in conjunction with the show.

Willow Basketmaking Classes with Katherine Lewis

Classes are two days, from 9am to 5pm. Everyone will leave with a finished basket. Class size is limited to 10. Cost is $175 per student which includes materials. We provide tea and coffee. Class will be held at the McLean Road Fire Hall meeting room just down the road from Dunbar Gardens.

January 29-30 (Saturday-Sunday): Oval laundry or garden basket

Two very useful baskets and a good introduction to oval work in willow. Both of these oval projects start with the same base, using twining and chase weaves. The sides of the basket include a sturdy 4 rod base wale with step up to three rod wale. Both baskets have side weave of French randing, but the laundry basket is taller and straighter where the garden basket flares out. The laundry is finished with a raised end for inset handles; the garden basket has a sturdy handle wrapped with slender willows. Some previous work with willow is suggested, but beginners could also make a gathering basket. There is a registration form on our website.

March 16-20: Northwest Basket Weavers Annual Retreat

Katherine will be teaching a two day class at the retreat this year. The ‘willow rope coil bowl’ will be the project. She is also scheduled to teach a short evening workshop on leather braided handles. See the NWBW website for details and registration.

News

Katherine’s willow basket “Harvesting the Skagit” was awarded Grand Champion of the 2010 Puyallup Fair in the professional basketry category of the Home Arts competitive exhibits. The Puyallup Fair (officially the Western Washington Fair) draws over a million visitors every year and is the largest attraction held annually in Washington State. Katherine originally made this basket for an exhibit called “Paint Me a River!” that was staged by the Skagit Historical Museum last winter. Katherine is pleased to receive this award for the second year. She also won the 2009 Grand Champion ribbon at the Fair for the basket “Nana Queen”. You can see photos of both the baskets online at Puyallup Fair Grand Champion.

Farmstand: We still have a selection of garden fresh produce for sale Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 10-5. You can stop by any day of the week if you want to look at the willow baskets we have on hand.

Facebook: Dunbar Gardens has a Facebook page. We post photos of Katherine’s latest baskets, commissions, and photos of the farm as well as other links of interest for willow basketry.

Katherine & Steve

May newsletter

Dunbar Gardens 2 Responses »

May 052010

News from Dunbar Gardens May 2010

Willow Basketry Classes & Upcoming Events

News

There is an article about Katherine Lewis, Willow Basketmaker in the latest issue of “Shuttle Spindle & Dyepot”- the quarterly journal of Handweavers Guild of America. The article was written by Sandra Swarbrick who lives nearby on Camano Island and has a long involvement with the HGA. Nice article describing Katherine’s background with basketry, willow, and her teachers.

Katherine is serving as President of the Board for the Northwest Basket Weavers Guild for the coming year.

Upcoming Events

Edmonds Arts Festival: June 18-20, popular festival featuring 240 juried artist exhibitors, music, performing arts, children’s activities, wine bar and bistro in downtown Edmonds on Fathers’ Day weekend. Katherine will be selling her baskets in the Plaza area for traditional arts and crafts.

Anacortes Arts Festival Arts at the Port Juried Exhibition: August 6-8, Opening reception July 30, 5:30-8pm. Exhibition entitled “Next” juried by Esther Luttikhuizen showing a diverse mix of work in fine crafts, painting, sculpture, and photography. Katherine is excited to have four pieces selected for the show.

Looking ahead: Exploring Baskets: A juried show and sale of work by members of the Northwest Basket Weavers Guild: December 3- January 29, 2010 at the Depot Arts Center, Anacortes, WA. Katherine is involved in organizing this show and expects an outstanding and diverse exhibit.

Willow Basketmaking Classes with Katherine Lewis

Classes are two days, from 9am to 5pm. Everyone will leave with a finished basket. Class size is limited to 10. Cost is $170 per student which includes materials. Tools will be available to use during the class; and awls, French curved blade knives and locally made rapping irons will be available for purchase. We provide tea and coffee.
There is a registration form on the website. Or you can send us your contact info (name, address, email, telephone) along with a $50 deposit per class session. Last minute sign ups should email baskets@dunbargardens.com for availability. These classes are all in the Mount Vernon area at Dunbar Gardens or just down the road from us at the McLean Road Fire Hall meeting room.

June 26-27 (Saturday-Sunday): Gathering basket, round or oval laundry basket

Depending on each student’s experience, you can make a round gathering or a laundry basket. The gathering basket starts with a round base made by twining, a sturdy base wale around the sides, English randing for the side weave, and a strong cross handle to complete the basket. The round laundry basket is larger than the gathering basket, taking more hand strength and more time to weave the sides. It begins with the same twined base and base wale; then students may choose between different side weaves. The laundry basket is completed with two roped side handles. More experienced willow weavers can make an oval laundry or log basket that is also finished with roped handles.

July 13-16: four day in-depth class

This class session is currently filled. Katherine appreciates the positive response for the longer session and will be planning another one in the future.

August 16-17 (Monday-Tuesday): Scallomed projects

This class provides baskets at all weaving levels. We will weave the base on a hoop frame, and scallom on the stakes. The oval shopper is the simplest of the shapes, great for beginners. The magazine basket is a skinny long oval basket with a lengthwise handle, making it great for magazines or books next to your favorite chair. The square basket is great for shopping, and is a chance for those with previous willow experience to learn square shaping and square border corners. Students can choose from a selection of side weaves. Experience with willow is helpful, and comfort using a knife is essential for this class.

Classes at other locations

May 20-23: Willow basketmaking presentation and class in Portland, Oregon for Columbia Basin Basketry Guild members. Katherine is looking forward to her trip to Portland. She will be giving a presentation to the CBBG on her passion for willow basketry at the regular meeting of the CBBG on the evening of May 20. She will teach a two day class weaving an oval laundry or garden basket May 22-23. Sign up for the class is through the CBBG and Carol Horvath (email: carolhorvath8@gmail.com).

October 21-23: Tidal Twinings, Columbia Basin Basketry Guild Fall Retreat in Rockaway Beach, Oregon. Katherine will be teaching two classes at the CBBG retreat this year. Willow bicycle basket on Thursday & Friday and a Berry picking basket on Saturday. You can be a member of either the CBBG or the Northwest Basket Weavers Guild to attend this fun event. See their website for details and contact info.

Facebook: Dunbar Gardens has a Facebook page. If you are a Facebook user, become a follower and keep up to date with our activities there. We also invite you to contribute by posting comments, your photos from one of our classes, starting discussions related to willow basketry or willow growing.

For more information about classes, baskets, willow growing, or our farmstand please visit our website.

Thanks!

Katherine & Steve

Willow basketry class schedule

basket classes 2 Responses »

Jan 042010

We have posted a new schedule of willow basket making classes by Katherine Lewis for the first half of 2010. You can view all the info on the basket classes page on the Dunbar Gardens website. She is offering a variety of baskets and techniques, as well as trying to accommodate weavers with different levels of willow experience in most classes.

February 27-28: Scallomed projects – oval shopper, magazine basket, square shopper
April 10-11: Stake and strand projects – round gathering basket, oval shopper, oval garden basket
May 1-2: Irish potato basket and fruit basket
June 26-27: stake and strand projects – gathering basket, round laundry with roped handles, oval laundry
mid August (specific dates to be announced): repeat of scallomed class from February

Katherine is also organizing an in depth four day class for July. This class will be for a smaller number of weavers looking for a more extensive experience. Possible projects will include square work and fitching. Some students have been asking for more in depth work with Katherine, and this will be the chance. People interested can contact Katherine for more details. (Need I say weavers with the necessary hand strength to go four days?)

We have also listed a couple of classes that she is teaching in other locations. She is offering an “Intro to fitching class” at the Northwest Basket Weavers Guild Spring Retreat March 25-26. The project is a lovely oval market basket. Katherine will also be traveling to Portland, Oregon May 20-24 to give a presentation and class to members of the Columbia Basin Basketry Guild.

Visit our website for more details, registration form, and photos of the baskets and past classes.

Northwest Basket Weavers Retreat

basket classes No Responses »

Nov 162009

NWBW Retreat 2007 willow basket class

The Northwest Basket Weavers Guild has mailed out the registration information for the annual Spring Retreat. The Retreat is scheduled for March 24-28,2010 at the Pilgrim Firs Conference Center in Port Orchard, WA. There are 43 proposed classes to chose from as well as the opportunity to bring other projects for the open weaving area. This year’s featured teacher is Cass Schorsch who will be sharing her bark basketry techniques. She will also be presenting a slide show on Friday evening before the Gallery Gala.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Katherine Lewis will be teaching one two day willow basketry class at the Retreat. Katherine’s class is “Introduction to fitching” for intermediate weavers. You must be a member of the Guild to participate in the Retreat. All the information is available in the brochure which you can see at the Guild website, including color photos of the class baskets.

NWBW March retreat preview

basketry No Responses »

Oct 192009

fitched willow shopper

Katherine Lewis will be teaching a two day “Introduction to fitching” class at the Northwest Basket Weavers Guild annual Spring retreat. The dates for next year’s retreat are March 24 – 28, 2010. Katherine’s class will be offered on Thursday and Friday, March 25 & 26 with a limit of ten students. So if you’re interested, you’ll need to keep an eye out for the retreat brochure. By the way, you have to be a member of the group to attend. All the info is at their website.

In the class, students will weave a solid base on a hoop frame, and then scallom on half the stakes and bye-stake the rest into the waling. This will allow enough stakes to learn fitching without spending all day scalloming! We’ll fitch around the basket twice; giving weavers plenty of practice learning this technique. The basket is finished with more waling, a 5-rod border and handle to make a beautiful oval shopper. Everyone will leave with a finished basket because Katherine plans her class time so that all students are able to finish the project in class. However this class is only recommended for weavers with experience with willow.

Grand champion

baskets 3 Responses »

Sep 302009

Grand Champion at the Puyallup Fair

Katherine recently won the Grand Champion ribbon in the professional basket maker division of the home arts competitions at the Puyallup Fair, or officially the Western Washington Fair. She won the blue ribbon in the wickerwork category and the overall winner. This year the fair ran from September 11-27 and had well over a million visitors. In recent years, entries in the basketry categories had been dropping; so members of the Northwest Basket Weavers Guild made an effort to encourage participation this year. Katherine was fortunate to have Vicky Nickelson transport her basket to and from the fair. In case weavers are interested, the basket was made from Salix purpurea ‘nana’.

Thank you gift

baskets No Responses »

Apr 282009

Kathey Ervin purse

Katherine recently received this lovely purse from basketmaker Kathey Ervin. Kathey has a business called The Basketry Studio in Sequim, WA. She makes baskets and teaches classes using Northwest native materials. The purse was an unexpected thank you for Katherine’s help in transporting Kathey’s work for the “Containers” show in Everett, as well as help on last November’s “Northwest Basket Weavers Guild regional basket day” in Sequim.

Kathey Ervin purse

Spring Retreat

basketry No Responses »

Mar 282009

Katherine Lewis potato basket class

Katherine recently attended the Northwest Basket Weavers Guild Spring Retreat. She was the teacher of two classes at this annual event. Over 100 basketmakers came to take classes, weave, and socialize from March 18-22 at the Pilgrim Firs Conference Center in Port Orchard, WA. Katherine had two full classes. The first was an Irish potato basket. Check out the lovely colors in this traditional basket in the photo above. The willows are all from Dunbar Gardens. In the center of the photo holding her basket above her head is Alex Keggan who often helps Katherine in her classes. The other class was a willow square tray. The stakes on these are scallomed on the square base. Those borders and corners can be a real challenge.

some of the square tray class

Katherine was joined at the retreat by her friend and fellow willow basketmaker Kelly Wilson from Courtenay on Vancouver Island in Canada.

Katherine & Kelly

Older Entries

January 2012 newsletter

Exploring Baskets

November 2010 newsletter

News from Dunbar Gardens November 2010

May newsletter

Willow basketry class schedule

Northwest Basket Weavers Retreat

NWBW March retreat preview

Grand champion

Thank you gift

Spring Retreat

Welcome

Recent Posts

Archives

Categories

Dunbar Gardens on Flickr

Follow Dunbar Gardens

Check out

Translate this Page